Beyond Algorithmic Solutions: The Significance of Academic Debate for Learning Assessment and Skill Cultivation in the AI World

Abstract

This is a commissioned paper. Thank you to Tom Rogerson and the Cottesmore School.

Many educators are looking for alternative methods of assessment as a result of the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) applications that are becoming increasingly adept at completing student work covertly, while also accelerating in other ways that will impact education. This need for new forms of assessment and instruction comes on top of the need to find ways to increase studentengagement in the classroom, to provide opportunities for students to develop skills for a technologically augmented world, and also provide students with opportunities to learn to use the same AI technologies that are creating the assessment challenges. Schools are also facing challenges related to retaining teachers, teachers feeling overwhelmed by the constant need to adapt to change that began with COVID-19, and adequately upskilling teachers to teach appropriately in the AI World while continuing to try to understand what these changes mean for education and how they can adapt.

In this paper, we explore the role of academic debate, both competitive academic debate and its application in the classroom through debate-centered instruction (DCI), as a chance for students to develop crucial 21st-century durable skills that are in demand by employers, as a performative assessment method where students’ understanding of the subject matter can be demonstrated in real-time, as a way for both teachers and students to learn to utilize these new tools to augment their abilities in an AI World in a way they feel comfortable with, and as a way to facilitate human-to-human interaction in a world that is becoming increasingly dominated by technology. As an instructional and assessment method, academic debate has proven itself relevant in all eras, from the agriculture era to the present, and, we argue, is especially relevant in the AI World.

Teachers who learn instructional methods rooted in facilitating classroom debates will develop skills to help manage not only the classroom of the present but also the classroom of the future: One where a human teacher facilitates and supports student learning from various sources, including AI tools.

When utilized properly, the integration of AI and debate into the classroom provides us with a practical opportunity to support the integrity of assessment, facilitate individualized instruction, engage students, provide students with a stake in their learning outcomes, provide students with essential human-to-human interaction, and push education forward, all while providing an easily accessible starting point for teachers and administrators who are just coming to understand the impact AI is having on our world.

Keywords: debate, artificial intelligence

JEL Classification: 120, 121, 124, 129